Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Notice of 1-Year Finding on a Petition to List the Longfin Smelt

요약

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) announces a 1- year finding on a petition to list the longfin smelt (Spirinchus thaleichthys) under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (Act). The Service determines that the petitioned action is not warranted at this time. The longfin smelt occurs from the San Francisco Bay-Sacramento-San Joaquin River Estuary in California to Prince William Sound in Alaska. Although the southernmost populations are declining, little or no population trend data are available for estuaries in Oregon and Washington. The species may be surviving and reproducing in Puget Sound, Skagit Bay, Grays Harbor, Willapa Bay, the Columbia River, Yaquina Bay, and Coos Bay. Large numbers are found in the Gulf of Alaska 5 to 6 miles off shore. The listing of a Sacramento- San Joaquin River estuary vertebrate population segment is also not warranted at this time because that population does not seem to be biologically significant to the species as a whole, and may not be sufficiently reproductively isolated.